Even if you're not a baseball fan, you are probably familiar with Jackie Robinson. He broke the color barrier in the major leagues when he played with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

But that was in the National League. Can you name the first African American to play in the junior circuit? And did you realize one team waited 12 years after Robinson before putting a black player on the field?

John Wallenstein passed away Thursday, August 7, 2014.
John made a huge impact on WUIS with his quiet leadership and by explaining to his extensive contacts in the business community how supporting WUIS' mission to inform the community also benefited their business.
John was proud to be the force behind making the Education Initiative possible. He raised funds for it over the past two years and headed the search committee to find the first multmedia journalist to head the education desk.
Our thoughts and gratitude are with John's wife, Gracia, and their family. Arrangements pending.
WUIS staff and partners know John best from his time at the radio station over the past decade. The SJ-R's Jim Ruppert shares another aspect of John's life...

It’s Opening Night for the team that plays its home games at Robin Roberts Stadium on Springfield’s north side. Sliders’ Director of Community Relations Bill Hill and Field Manager Pete Romero stopped by to talk about what’s in store this season and the future of baseball in Springfield.

On July 25, 1860, members of the Excelsior Base Ball Club met on their baseball grounds in Chicago to settle a political argument. The purpose of the meeting was a baseball game between players who supported the presidential candidacy of Abraham Lincoln and those who supported Stephen A. Douglas. Mostly in their 20s, the club’s players represented an upwardly mobile group of young Chicago residents who hoped to channel their energy and enthusiasm for the coming presidential election through their athletic prowess on the baseball field.

There is some element of risk in asking a man with a long memory and far too much education to write about baseball. Politics and history and the environment may raise the hackles, but only a serious subject can provoke a truly prolonged emotional outburst.

I’m not sure anyone realistically thinks the St. Louis Cardinals will move across the river if Missouri lawmakers don’t meet the team’s demand for a new stadium. But that doesn’t mean Illinois shouldn’t have asked.

That’s just what Carlyle Democrat Rep. Kurt Granberg did last year. And Gov. George Ryan hasn’t let the idea get past him. Ryan met late in the summer with Cardinals president Mark Lamping to explore the possibilities of a Cardinals move.

As the summer heat sets in, my thoughts drift to baseball. They drift back 13 years, to 1988 when the Illinois legislature adopted a last-minute plan to build a new Comiskey Park for the Chicago White Sox. That prevented the Sox from moving to Florida.